NCSSM no exception: Bloat of administrative budget plagues N.C. School of Science and Math and must be curtailed

In today’s climate of budget reductions and administrative cutbacks, the N.C. School of Science and Math’s administrative costs have become unacceptable.

Since 2004, NCSSM’s administrative costs have risen a whopping 46 percent, according to The (Raleigh) News & Observer. The overall budget has increased only 36 percent and enrollment has expanded by a mere 70 students, or about 12 percent.

What’s more, the actual number of administrative positions has increased by only two.

And Chancellor Gerald Boarman’s salary has kept pace with the skyrocketing administrative budget — since 2004, his salary has risen 40 percent to $245,000.

It is fiscally irresponsible for administrative costs at the school to outpace both enrollment growth and budget growth.

NCSSM should heed UNC-system President Erskine Bowles’ demands to cut administrative expenses.

Bowles recently called the steady growth of UNC-system administrative costs “an absolute embarrassment.”

It’s time to rein in the ballooning budget at NCSSM.

Even more frustrating than the rising administrative costs is that, beginning with the NCSSM class of 2011, graduates will not receive a tuition waiver for in-state universities.

Students — the supposed beneficiaries of the superior education that NCSSM offers — are seeing their most valuable benefits slashed in the wake of budget cuts.

 It seems only fair that the administrative budget — part of which is the disproportionately large pay increases that top administrators have received — should see similarly drastic cuts.

High administrative costs have been identified as burdens on the entire UNC system.

When it comes to singling out this embarrassing trend, NCSSM should not be an exception.